Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads

By Roy H. Williams

Awards: Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller
1999 Business Book of the Year

In 100 chapters full of wit, wisdom and uncommon good sense, Secret Formulas conjures up more of the Wizard’s provocative observations on advertising, business, and life that won The Wizard of Ads 1998 Business Book of the Year Award—only this time, the book has nuts, bolt, and even more bite!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 1, 1999
• ISBN: 9781932226096

Book preview

Publisher

1

The Energy of Words

You study pivotal people and events in history, searching for a common denominator. You hope to identify the recurrent elements of greatness, the keys to phenomenal success. You search for the secret of miracles. After several hundred hours of reading, you reach an utterly inescapable conclusion: Words are the most powerful force there has ever been.

Monumental events explode with energetic words, and great leaders are remembered for the things they say. Although a grand idea may carry the seeds of change, it takes powerful words to launch the idea skyward, words strong enough to carry the full weight of vision. Likewise, great ad campaigns begin with grand ideas and come alive with vivid words.

Oddly enough, most business people have fabulous ideas; they simply don't have the words. Their wonderful ideas are sadly shortcircuited when they cannot find the words to carry them skyward.

You have seen Rodin's famous sculpture The Thinker and were intrigued the moment you saw it. But how your interest increases when you hear Rodin speak of it! What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with the brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils, and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs; with his clenched fist and gripping toes. Seeing it now with our ears, we find Rodin's Thinker far more interesting than when we saw it only with our eyes.

Words are electric; they should be chosen for the emotional voltage they carry. Weak and predictable words cause grand ideas to appear so dull that they fade into the darkness of oblivion. But powerful words in unusual combinations brightly illuminate the mind.

Yes, words are electric. If a sentence does not shock a little, it carries no emotional voltage. When the hearer is not jolted, you can be sure he is not moved. Remember the words of Napoleon: Small plans do not inflame the hearts of men.

Words start wars and end them, create love and choke it, bring us to laughter and joy and tears. Words cause men and women willingly to risk their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Our world, as we know it, revolves on the power of words.

In your ads, use words that are majestic, words that have the power to inflame people's hearts and illuminate their minds.

2

Specifics and Generalities

It's 2 am and my friend Tony and I have walked 270 feet down a dark alley to the back of a hardware store, then turned around to see a policeman standing next to our car. We stare at each other a moment, then slowly walk the 270 feet back toward the policeman. I tell Tony, Don't say a word. Let me handle it. You'll just get us cuffed and scuffed. I turn to the cop.

Hello officer I'm sure this looks suspicious but my name is Roy Hollister Williams and this is my best friend Anthony Marc White and we were having an argument in the kitchen of my house at twoeleven West Detroit where my wife Pennie is in bed already because she can't stay awake past ten o'clock and Tony said he was thinking about renting this vacant space next to the hardware store for an auto body shop because he thinks he can get twenty cars in this place and I said No way because the building is barely a hundred and fifty feet long and he said it was twice that long so we bet a cheeseburger and then came here to step it off together and I'm really good at stepping off distances because I used to work as an estimator for Aqua-Tite Seamless Guttering Company on Mingo Road and I can step off any distance to the exact foot because I used to do it several times a day to estimate the length of the guttering because we sold it by the foot and I had to bid the jobs and --

He's gone, says Tony. You can quit babbling like an idiot now. Yeah, I answer, but at least we're not in jail. Every time you talk to a cop, everyone within fifty feet of you goes to jail, and while that might sound like fun, I've got to go to work in the morning. Okay, says Tony, but you still owe me a cheeseburger.

Even though I'm only twenty, I already know that specifics are more believable than generalities. Tonight it saves me from taking a long ride in the back seat of a patrol car, and tomorrow it will help me write the kinds of ads that make people rich. In another few years, I'll use this little nugget of insight to launch my own advertising firm.

The simple truth is that nothing sounds quite so much like the truth as the truth, and most people seem to know the truth when they hear it. The truth is never full of loopholes and generalities. The truth is made of specifics and substantiation; it's solid. That's why it's easy to spot in a world full of paper-thin lies, half-lies, and hype.

What about your ads? Are they full of generalities and unsubstantiated claims? If so, your customer probably thinks you're lying even when you're telling the truth. Ads that sound like ads are never quite convincing.

Do your ads sound like ads?

3

Dead Cows Everywhere

Rarely do ad campaigns work as well as they should. I blame the three sacred cows of advertising: demographic targeting, gross rating points, and media mix. I think it's time for these cows to die.

Demographic targeting tells us that success can be found by reaching the right people. Consequently, advertisers focus on targeting and discount the importance of saying the right thing. In truth, decisions are seldom made in a vacuum. Each of us is influenced by a host of friends, relatives, co-workers, and strangers. The true secret of advertising success is to say the right thing to as many people as you can afford to reach over and over again. Wordof- mouth advertising is the result of having impressed someone, anyone, deeply.

Gross rating points tell us that persuading 100 percent of the city 10 percent of the way will work just as well as convincing 10 percent of the city 100 percent of the way. Those who buy gross rating points nearly always reach too many people with too little repetition. Media mix tells us that the same people who see your newspaper ads will also hear your radio ads and notice your billboards. Media mix further assumes that the customer will recognize all these as having come from the same advertiser. Yet rarely is one of these fragmented campaigns connected in the mind of the consumer.

Has the time come to replace the three sacred cows of advertising? Yes, I believe it has, and as you read ahead, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

4

Uniquely Unqualified

In one critical respect, the advertising business is unlike any other. The idea that the customer is always right may be true in every other business, but it will lead an advertising person to ruin just as surely as if he had jumped off a cliff. The ad writer who believes the client is always right will give the client what he requests instead of what he really needs. Everything will be roses in the short run, but when the campaign yields disappointing results, the ad person will get all the blame for the client's bad idea.

People in business are uniquely unqualified to see their own companies and products objectively. Too much product knowledge causes them to instinctively answer questions no one is asking. This makes for extremely ineffective advertising. A few years ago, Pennzoil spent millions of dollars shouting to America, Pennzoil is the only leading brand of motor oil to meet the 1996 S.A.E. requirements two years early. I'm still looking for the person they thought might care.

Never take the advice of an advertising person who is quick to agree with you. The first rule of every good ad consultant is this: The customer is always wrong.

5

Selling the Inside Champion

As a little kid, I watched a clown named Ronald launch a worldwide fast-food empire by winning the hearts of inside champions all across America. Ronald found his champions watching Saturday morning cartoons, and he impressed them with the idea that a toy should be included with the purchase of every hamburger and fries. Ronald knew that each little inside champion rode in the back seat of a car driven by a decision maker and that when the time came for that decision maker to make a decision, his inside champion would spring into action.

I've warned you not to fall into the trap of thinking you must target the decision maker in your advertising, but in reality, our irrational tendency to overtarget becomes even more pronounced in face-toface selling situations. Perhaps it's because sales trainers have long insisted that the first step in making a sale is to reach the decision maker: Don't waste time on people who have no authority. The result of this horrible advice has been that salespeople habitually ignore the friendly and readily accessible inside champions who could make the job of selling so incredibly easy -- the secretary, the file clerk, the husband, the wife, the golfing buddy, or the friend of a friend.

But never try to target an inside champion! (No one likes being used.) Just realize that inside champions are all around you, every day. All you need to do is tell your very convincing and compelling story to anyone and everyone who will listen to it. You never know who a person might know.

While it has always been difficult to reach the person who has final authority to make a decision, reaching all the people around that person is usually incredibly easy. And if even one of these people is deeply impressed with your story, what do you think is going to happen? Especially if you haven't asked that person to talk to the boss for you? Remember: It's not who you reach, it's what you say that counts. Or as my friend Rich Mann says, It's not who you know, it's who knows you.

How many strangers do you impress with your story each day? Have you been ignoring all the friendly, powerful inside champions that surround you? Have you mistakenly assumed that they couldn't help you because they weren't decision makers?

Are you proud of the product or service you sell? If so, then talk about it! Even if the people who are listening all seem to be small potatoes.

6

b' b' b' Bennie and the Jets

I'm standing on an island in New York Harbor, quietly gazing up at the torch of Lady Liberty, when my ears catch a distant rumble. The noise quickly becomes a rushing roar, and for an instant the pale blue sky above the Lady's torch turns dark as six navy jets pass over her in tight formation. It's the first time I've ever seen the Blue Angels. My thoughts turn immediately to Bennie.

Bennie is a printer who has taught his craft to several young people, then helped each one of them open his own little printing shop. Bennie remains a silent partner in each of the shops as he sells his young partners all their paper and printing supplies. Most people think Bennie is a printer, but in reality, Bennie is a salesman.

Bennie is such a good salesman, in fact, that he has been sent to make an impossible sale. His employers need money desperately, but no one is willing to loan it to them because everyone knows they are going under. Bennie's mission is to secure the funding that will allow them to survive, an amount totaling several million dollars, and Bennie has nothing to offer as collateral. But Bennie has a plan.

Bennie wangles himself an invitation to a dinner party where movers and shakers will be gathered, but instead of smiling and handing his business card to each of the powerful men, Bennie slips into the room next door where all the men's wives have gathered. Bennie smiles and listens and asks perceptive questions and is soon quite a favorite among the ladies, so it comes as no surprise when he is invited to party after party. And each time it is the same: speak with the women, avoid the men.

One night, the ladies say, Bennie, tell us about yourself. Tell us about where you are from. Soon they are spellbound as Bennie speaks from his heart about his employers and their lofty goals, hopes, dreams, and beliefs. Within a few days, Bennie's employers have the money they need.

As the Blue Angels pass over Lady Liberty, my mind turns to Bennie, because this is the statue that was sent as